CHAPTER XVII.
THE COUNTESS OF CHARNY.
Gilbert had retired into a window recess, while the King paced theBulls-eye Hall, called on account of a round window in the wall,thinking now of public matters, then of his visitor's persistencethough nothing but news from Paris ought to have enchained him.
Suddenly the door opened and the lady entered, dressed in the extremeof the showy and fantastic fashion of Marie Antoinette and her court.
She was lovely, this Countess Charny, with a peerless figure and herhand was aristocratic to the utmost with which she played with a smallcane.
"She, Andrea Taverney!" muttered Gilbert, involuntarily shrinkingbehind the curtains.
"My lady, I ask your presence for a little information," began themonarch, seeing nothing of Gilbert's emotion.
"I am ready to satisfy your Majesty." The voice attracted the doctorwho came a little forward.
"A week ago, or so, a blank letter under the royal seal was deliveredto Minister Necker," went on the King, "for the arrest----"
Gilbert had his eye on the lady, who was pale, feverish and fretful asif bent under the weight of a secret.
"This warrant was applied for by your ladyship and countersigned by theQueen. I say this to refresh your memory. Why do you not say something,countess?"
"It is true, your Majesty," she faltered, in a feverish abstraction,"I wrote for the letter, filled up the blanks, and the Queen backed it."
"Will you please tell me what crime the person committed for whom themeasure was taken?" demanded Louis.
"Sire, I may not do that, but I shall say the crime was great."
"Then you should do so to the object," continued the King; "what yourefuse the King Louis XVI., you cannot Doctor Gilbert."
He stepped aside to discover the doctor, who opened the curtains andappeared as pale as the staggering lady. She tossed her head backwardsas if going to swoon, and only kept her footing by aid of a table. Sheleaned on it in dull despair, like one whom a snake bite was fillingwith poison.
"My lady, let me put the question to you which the King addressed,"said Gilbert.
Andrea's lips moved but no sound struggled forth.
"What did I do to you, lady, that your order threw me into a hideousdungeon?"
The voice made her leap as if it tore the very soul in her.
Suddenly lowering her cold gaze on him, she replied:
"Sir, I do not know you."
But while she was speaking the mesmerist stared at her with so muchfixedness and his glance was so charged with invincible boldness thather own lost lustre under his.
"Countess, you see what this abuse of the royal signature leadsto," gently reproved the monarch; "you confess you do not know thisgentleman, who is a renowned physician, a learned man, whom you canblame in no way,----"
Andrea darted a withering glance at Gilbert, who bore it calmly andproudly.
"I am saying that it is wicked to visit on the innocent the faults ofanother. I know you have not a bad heart," he hastened to add, for hewas trembling lest he offended his wife's favorite, "and that you wouldnot pursue anybody in your hatred unless he merited it: but you willunderstand that such mistakes must not be made in the future. Doctor,"he went on, turning to the other hearer, "these things are the faultof our period rather than of persons. We are born in corruption and weshall die in it. But we are going to try to make matters better, inwhich work I expect you to join us, dear doctor."
He stopped, thinking he had said enough to please both parties. Ifhe had spoken thus at a Parliamentary session, he would have beenapplauded; but his audience of two personal enemies little heeded hisconciliatory philosophy.
"But," recommenced Gilbert, "while not knowing me, you knew anotherGilbert, whose crime weighs upon his Namesake. It is not my place toquestion the lady; will your Majesty deign to inquire of her ladyshipwhat this infamous man did?"
"Countess, you cannot refuse so just a request."
"The Queen must know, since she authorized the arrest," said Andreaevasively.
"But it is not enough that the Queen should be convinced," said thesovereign, "it is necessary that the King also should know. The Queenis what she is, but I am the King."
"Sire, the Gilbert for whom the warrant was intended committed ahorrible crime sixteen years ago."
"Will your Majesty please inquire what age this Gilbert is to-day?"
"He may be thirty-two," replied Andrea.
"Sire, then the crime was done by a boy, not a man, and does he notdeserve some indulgence who has for sixteen years deplored his boyishcrime?"
"You seem to know him? has he committed no other crime than this sin ofyouth?" demanded the King.
"I am less indulgent to him than others, but I can say that hereproaches himself with none other."
"Only with having dipped his pen in poison and written odious libels!"
"Sire, please ask my lady if the real cause of the arrest and committalof this Gilbert was not to enable his enemies--particularly oneenemy--to get possession of a certain casket containing papers possiblycompromising a great lady of the court?"
Andrea shuddered from head to foot.
"Countess, what casket is this?" inquired the King, who noticed theplain pallor and agitation of the lady.
"No more shifting and subterfuges," cried Gilbert, feeling that he wasmaster of the situation. "Enough falsehoods on both sides. I am Gilbertof the crime, the libels, the casket, and you the real great lady ofthe court. I take the King as the judge. Accept him and we will tellour judge, under heaven and the King will decide."
"Tell his Majesty what you please, but I shall say nothing more--for Ido not know you," responded the haughty lady.
"And the casket? you do not know about that?"
"No more than of you."
But she shook with the effort to make this denial, like a statuerocking at the base.
"Beware," said the doctor, "you cannot have forgotten that I am thepupil of Balsamo-Cagliostro the Magician, who has transmitted to methe power he had over you. Once only, will you answer the question? Mycasket?" then, lifting his hand, full of threatening, he thundered:"Nature of steel, heart of adamant, bend, melt, shatter under theirresistible pressure of my will! You shall speak, Andrea, and none,King or any powers less than heaven's, shall subtract you from my sway.You shall unfold your mind to the august witness and he shall read whatyou hid in the black recesses of your soul. Sire, you shall know allthrough her who refuses to speak. Sleep, Andrea Taverney, Countess ofCharny, sleep and speak, for I will it."
Hardly were the words uttered before the woman, stopped short inbeginning a scream, held out her arms for support as if struck byblindness. Finding none, she fell into the King's arms and he placedher in a chair.
"Ha!" exclaimed he, trembling like herself, "I have heard abouthypnotism but never saw an exhibition. Is not this magnetic sleep towhich you oblige her to succumb, doctor?"
"Yes, my lord. Take her hand, and ask her why she had me arrested."
Astounded by the scene, Louis receded but, interested, he did asdirected. As Andrea resisted, the magnetizer touched the crown of herhead with his palm, saying:
"Speak, I will it."
She sighed and her arms fell; her head sank back and she wept.
"Ugh, I hate you," she hissed.
"Hate away, but speak."
"So, countess," said the King, "you wanted to arrest and imprison thedoctor?"
"Yes."
"And the casket?"
"How could I leave that in his hands?" muttered the lady, in a hollowvoice.
"Tell me about that," said the King forgetting etiquet and kneelingbeside the countess.
"I learnt that Gilbert, who had in sixteen years been twice back inFrance, purposed another voyage, to settle here. Chief of Police Crosneinformed me that he had on a previous return bought an estate atVillers Cotterets: that his farmer enjoyed his trust, and I suspectedthat the casket with his papers was at his house."
&
nbsp; "How could you suspect that?"
"I--I went to Mesmer's and had myself put into a trance, when, my ownmedium, I wrote down the revelations I wanted."
"Wonderful," exclaimed the Sovereign.
"I went to Chief Crosne and he lent me his best man, one Wolfstep, whobrought me the casket."
"Where is it?" cried Gilbert. "No lying--where is my casket?"
"In my rooms at Versailles," said Andrea, trembling nervously andbursting into tears. "Wolfstep is waiting for me here by appointmentsince eleven."
Twelve was striking.
"Where is he?"
"Standing in the waiting room, leaning on the mantleshelf. The casketis on the table before him. Oh, haste! Count Charny, who was not toreturn before to-morrow, will be back to-night on account of theevents. He is at Sevres now. Get Wolfstep away for fear my lord willsee him."
"Your Majesty hears? This casket belongs to me. Will the King pleaseorder it to be returned to me?"
"Instantly."
Placing a screen before the countess, Louis called the officer on dutyand gave him orders what to do.
This curiosity of a monarch whose throne was being undermined to apurely physical problem, would make those smile who expected him to beengrossed with politics.
But he concentrated himself on this private speculation and returned tosee the mesmerizer and the medium.
In the mesmeric slumber Andrea's wondrous beauty was displayed in itsentire splendor. She who had in her youth enthralled Louis XV. nowenchanted his successor.
Gilbert turned his head away, sighing: he could not resist theprompting to give his adored this degree of supernal beauty; and nowmore unhappy than Pygmalion, for he knew how insensible was the lovelystatue, he was frightened by his own work.
Gilbert knew how to own his ignorance, like all superior men. He knewwhat he could do, but not the wherefore.
"Where did you study the art? under Mesmer?" asked the King.
"I saw the most astonishing phenomena ten years before that German cameinto France. My master was a more amazing man, superior to any you canname, for I have seen him execute surgical operations of incredibledaring. No science was unknown to him. But I ought not to utter hisname before your Majesty."
"I should like to hear it, though it was Satan's itself."
"My lord, you honor me almost with a friend's confidence in speakingthus. My master was Baron Balsamo, afterwards Count Cagliostro."
"That charlatan!" exclaimed Louis, blushing, for he could not helpremembering the plot of the Diamond's Necklace, in which Cagliostro hadfigured as friend of Cardinal Rohan and consequently enemy of MarieAntoinette. The King believed his wife but the world thought that shehad participated in the fraud on the court jewelers. We have relatedthe story according to our lights in the volume of this series entitled"The Queen's Necklace."
"Charlatan?" repeated Gilbert warmly. "You are right. The name comesfrom the Italian word meaning to patter, to talk freely--and no onewas more ready than Cagliostro to talk instructively where the seedwould fall on fruitful ground."
"This Cagliostro whom you praise was a great enemy of kings," observedLouis.
"Rather say of queen's," retorted Gilbert.
"In the trial of Prince Rohan, his conduct was equivocal."
"Sire, then as ever he fulfilled his mission to mankind. He mayhave acted mistakenly then. But I studied under the physician andphilosopher, not under the politician."
"Well, well," said the King, suffering under the wound to his personand his pride; "we are forgetting the countess who is in pain."
"I will awaken her presently, for here is the casket coming."
In fact the messenger was arriving with the small box which he handedto the King. He nodded his satisfaction and the officer went out.
"Sire, it is my casket: but I would remark that it contains papersdamning to the countess and----"
"Carry it away unopened, sir," said the monarch coldly. "Do not awakenthe lady here, I detest shrieks, groans, noise."
"She will awaken wherever you suggest her removal."
"In the Queen's apartments will be best."
"How long will it take?"
"Ten minutes."
"Awaken in fifteen minutes," ordered the mesmerizer to the lady.
Two guardsmen entered and carried out the countess, seated on the chair.
"My lady fainted here," said the King to the officer, "bear her to theQueen."
"What can I do for you, Dr. Gilbert?" he asked when they were alone.
"I wish to be honorary house physician to your Majesty. It is aposition which will do nobody umbrage and is more of trust thanemolument and lustre."
"Granted! Good-by, Dr. Gilbert. Remind me affectionately to Necker.Bring me supper," he added, for nothing could make the King forget ameal.